Um livro muito interessante chama-se “Scents of Eden”, A history of the Spice trade , o autor ‘e Charles Corn , 1998 , Kodansha Interntional .
O titulo ‘e elucidativo e ‘e mais um daqueles volumes a que os academicos e eruditos torcem o nariz mas sao fundamentais e fazem todo o trabalho na causa de explicar a Historia ‘as pessoas que nao sao academicas nem eruditas mas mesmo assim procuram conhecimento.
Os anos vao passando , as analises vao-se solidificando, os complexos de esquerda ou direita evaporando, vai-se lentamente passando de uma escolha entre a visao heroica e gloriosa e a visao opressora e iniqua.
Aqui fica um extrato, quando se discutia ja a situacao pos queda de Malaca e quando os Holandeses eram ja senhores do comercio das Indias:
pp203
(…) the portuguese, in face of such odds, were surprisingly resilient, a quality recorded by the Dutch leader: “The greater number regard India as their fatherland, thinking no longer of Portugal; they trade thither little or not at all , living and enriching themselves out of the treasures of India, as though they were natives and knew no other fatherland.”
This is an insightful observation.Despite having been ousted from the Spice Islands and losing their monopoly to the Dutch , the Portuguese were scattered in pockets throughout Asia.No longer the great colonial force (…), the Portuguese-despite the reprehensible acts commited by some-were unique among European colonizers of the Far East in their ability to involve themselves deeply in the social and cultural lives of the Asian peoples among whom they did retain a foothold.(…).By the same token , such expatriation was repellent to the Dutch , who ditrusted the Malays less on religious grounds than for their alleged dishonesty in trading.Catcholicism , while hardly supplanting Islam, ahd taken root here and there from India to the Malay archipelago thanks to the Portuguese and the Portuguese language rolled more easily off Malay tongues then did Dutch or English.Ironically, if any European tongue was the language of merchant intercourse, even in Batavia , it was Portuguese, much to the displeasure of the Dutch , who had overridden the Portuguese in matters of trade but made little effort to regard local cultures simpathetically.”
